As always, carrying my laptop bag, backpack, Tupperware water tumbler and pulling a trolley bag, i walked into the Kuching International Airport. but this time, i'm not gonna go through the immigration counter, nor am i flying to peninsular, to home. instead, i'm heading further in into the land of the hornbill...
Flying lower than usual above land, river and swamps, the flight took about half an hour or so. as i touched down in the Sibu Airport, i did not feel the difference at first. it's just like any other airport i've been to. my friend from sibu told me that the condition of the airport was bad, but i don't think so. sure, it is way smaller that the international airports and less high class, but i don't have any complains.
First thing to do - take my car that i sent to sibu from kuching the day before. i sat in my friend's 4WD, together with him, his parents, and two others. all four of us have cars to collect. my friend's mum welcomed us to sibu and told us that we will enjoy our stay here. however, my friend grinned and shook his head. funny... anyways, so far so good. i did not feel any hostility of the place.
So there we were, driving from the airport to the place to collect our cars in sibu town. wow, the airport is really, really far from the house i rented with my friends, even further from the town. i've forgotten the length of the journey, but i think it took at least more than an hour to reach town from the airport. definitely far. on the way to town, well, the view isn't that different at all. just that it's a new place for me.
After getting our cars, we followed our local friend as he took us back to the place where our rented houses were. from there, we got the keys and settled down, only for a while. at that time, it was only me and another housemate of mine, PS. the other 2 of our housemates were still on their way to sibu, in their own cars. back to us, after reaching our house, we unloaded, then 2 of our sibu friends came to take use and a few others to town for lunch and to buy some stuff. the town is far from my place.
Speaking of distance, there's actually a small problem when it comes to food. well, there's not much shops at nearby permai. permai is a place, i dunno if it can be considered a housing estate only, as there're shops there too. the coffee shops are limited, but good enough. just that perhaps, when the boredom starts to kick in, the other choice of place to eat is further, in a place called farley. by the way, i'm staying in ulu oya. not that ulu of a place, the houses are nicer than the ones in permai... anyway, farley is really far, but at least not as far as town. there's only one bank in farley, an RHB bank. to be more precise, it's ATM machine, or so i think. and that ATM machine is the nearest to my house... there's also a small pasar tamu in permai. the other shops found in permai are like mini markets (a lot of them), sundry shops, car accessories, etc. enough to survive.
The town of sibu... well, it has shops, supermarkets, cinemas, fastfood outlets, etc. the layout is kind of like penang island's town and taiping. it's compact, with olden day buildings mixed with some modern and high rise buildings. there're also those decorations. it feels more like home here. even the round-a-bouts have something in them, like plants and flowers, unlike the ones in kuching. as i've mentioned, the town is more compact. kuching town is too big and wide. it feels more "empty", altough bigger compared to sibu town. i dunno how to describe the feeling, but i definitely like the town here more than kuching town. it's a great place. i'm not sure bout the level of security safety here yet though. the shop which we had our lunch in, the owner was friendly, chatted with us a bit. he said that it's not so safe nowadays at night. oh well... then i just have to be more careful in town at night.
The downside is, the town's far from my place. hence so far, we only go to town during weekends. the first few days here was really hot. guess i wasn't used to it yet. now i know how to "handle" the heat, haha...
The hospital is also nice. when i first saw it on the way to town, i thought of USM campus in penang. not that is a hospital in a garden, but definitely much nicer and more spacious than kuching general hospital. there's a garden there too. how can kuching general hospital lose to sibu hospital in terms of space and beauty??? the environment, though lacking the technology aspect, is much nicer in sibu hospital.
I guess this is all that's in my mind to write about this for now.
